Heading Into Weekend Five

Heading into the weekend of Week Five, we have ourselves a new leader in the Draft, as Leon makes the leap to the top of the heap. He is now poised to finish on top of the table for the first time at week's end, thanks to what could be a Mover & Shaker type week. There is still plenty of games on the weekend to go, starting tonight, which has eight games on the schedule, but none on local (Calgary) networks. It's a good time to have renewed or ordered your Centre Ice subscription.

In total, we'll have 23 games between the three weekend days, including an 11-game day/night on Halloween Saturday. That should be enough games to scare up some points.

Leon currently sits with a 3-point lead on 2nd place, Wes, and a 7-point lead on 3rd place Dale C., so there is some safety, especially since he is also currently tied with the highest number of skater games to be played over the weekend with 20. It looks like this week was a long time coming for Leon.

In other news, there is a slight chance that we'll have a defenseman as Player of the Week, which could be a first in... I don't know how long. I know there wasn't one in the 2009 season and I don't think there was one in the 2008 season, so Tomas Kaberle could be in some pretty exclusive company, if he can have a big weekend. Kaberle is currently tied with Predators goalie, Pekka Rinne, for the Draft lead in pool points with six and there are a number of players who are nipping at their heels.

Of course, Leon, as we noted already, has the lead for the Mover & Shaker this week, as he is the only team that has eclipsed the 20-point barrier going into Friday's action. Clayton sits second in the weekly scoring with 18 points and Stacey ranks third with 17 points. If Leon gets contributions from all his skater games, he should be safe with an over 40-point week.

I also thought I would do a little bit of analyzing through the first four and a half weeks of the season about the number of points earned in the pool per game. Both Week One and Week Two went off to a roaring start, where on average, each game would have generated 11.1 points for the Draft. Week Four was next highest at only 10.2 points per game and Week Three and the first 24 games of Week Five are both below 10 points a game, sitting at 9.2 and 9.3, respectively. Of course, he have seen plenty of injuries in the pool, which have taken its toll on the season and it would be interesting to see if that trended in the 2009 season. Thankfully, the week still has 23 games, so maybe the teams can pick it up a bit more and we can see some good scoring for the Draft.

Have a good (and spooky) weekend!